G20 Summit Must Prioritize People Over Profits, FIA Kenya Tells Global Leaders.
G20 Summit Must Prioritize People Over Profits, FIA Kenya Tells Global Leaders.
By Maximilla Wafula, The County Diary News
The Fight Inequality Alliance Kenya has urged world leaders attending the upcoming G20 Summit in South Africa to embrace a people-centered global agenda that prioritizes justice, equality, and sustainability over profit-driven interests. The Alliance, a coalition of grassroots movements, community organizations, and civil society groups, called for bold reforms to tackle the widening economic inequality that continues to disadvantage millions across Kenya and the Global South.
The Alliance warned that the G20, which influences global economic policies, operates within a framework that perpetuates inequality instead of addressing it. Kenya’s inequality crisis is not only a domestic issue but a reflection of a global order that favors the few. Although Kenya is often hailed as one of Africa’s emerging economies, the benefits of growth remain unevenly distributed. Statistics show that 36 percent of Kenyans live below the national poverty line, while millions face job insecurity, high living costs, and limited access to essential services.
The country’s public debt, now at KSh 11.81 trillion or 67.8 percent of GDP, has worsened inequality as more than half of all government revenue is directed to debt repayment instead of social development. Austerity measures pushed by international lenders in the name of efficiency have also deepened poverty through subsidy cuts, public hiring freezes, and privatization of essential services.
FIA Kenya is calling for a public debt audit and the establishment of an African debt negotiation platform to prioritize citizens over creditors, the introduction of progressive taxation on wealth and luxury goods, a global UN tax convention to ensure corporations pay taxes where they operate, increased investment in public services, reform of tax incentives to support small businesses, and meaningful citizen participation in budget and debt decisions to enhance democracy and transparency.
The Alliance emphasized that inequality is not inevitable but the result of deliberate policy choices that can be reversed with political will and courage. It called on the G20 to move beyond words and take transformative action to build an economy that works for everyone, not just the privileged few. FIA Kenya reaffirmed its commitment to championing a world where human dignity and fairness come before profit.
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